Jo Walker on Designing Gunpowder and Geometry

Gunpowder and Geometry is the story of Charles Hutton, a man who in the 18th century spent his early life working down the mines but rose out of poverty to become a Professor at the Royal Military Academy.

I was asked to do something eye catching and different for this book - a ‘modern spin, not too old school looking’ and ‘nothing too dusty’ was the brief so I took that to mean I could have a bit of fun with it.

My initial thought was to focus on the mines and machinery as I thought a beautiful, gold foil, sparse jacket might do the job.

Jo Walker, Creating the Cover for Laline Paull's The Ice

Designer Jo Walker has an impressive portfolio of book covers. Among her amazing works are jackets for the novels of Laline Paull, published by 4th Estate. Here, in her own words, Walker details the rationale behind the design for the most recent of these books, The Ice.